Peter L. Reid
Train Attendant
Arrive in LA at 7.00am after 14 hours, booked into my hotel, freshened up and then walked down to LA Union Station for National Train Day.
What a great idea, we could do with in Australia. 1000's of people, milling around gathering lots of different information on train trips available, scenic tours, rail safety, Chuggington, Amtrak Vacations and a miriad of other exhibits. What was really good was to see the number of children
getting involved. My younger grandchildren would have loved it. I purchased, and procurred so much stuff, in the way of pamphlets, T-shirts etc
I had to send a parcel back home as I couldn't fit them into my pack.
The Coast Starlight is a train journey well worth the effort. The attendant in our car,Toni, was terrific. She couldn't do enough to help every
passenger, and never lost her smile the whole trip. I spent most of the daylight hours in the parlour car, viewing the changing landscape
and trying, at times in vain, to use the WiFi, which for obvious reasons was patchy in the "hills". The meals in the parlour car were good,
although there was less selection and they weren't as big as the meals in the dining car. This is ok though, if sitting for prolonged
periods tempers one's appetite, as it does mine.
Some of the scenery through the Cascades, with the high snow covered mountains, and deep, large lakes is magic. More of the same on
the "Empire Builder" I'm told, which I catch tonight.
At one stage in California, we had a couple of private cars attached to the train. A dome car and I think a dining car, all silver, with possibly
California Zephyr (maybe Silver Zephyr) on the side. I'm not sure because I thought one thing and then doubted myself, a common habit of
mine.
What a great idea, we could do with in Australia. 1000's of people, milling around gathering lots of different information on train trips available, scenic tours, rail safety, Chuggington, Amtrak Vacations and a miriad of other exhibits. What was really good was to see the number of children
getting involved. My younger grandchildren would have loved it. I purchased, and procurred so much stuff, in the way of pamphlets, T-shirts etc
I had to send a parcel back home as I couldn't fit them into my pack.
The Coast Starlight is a train journey well worth the effort. The attendant in our car,Toni, was terrific. She couldn't do enough to help every
passenger, and never lost her smile the whole trip. I spent most of the daylight hours in the parlour car, viewing the changing landscape
and trying, at times in vain, to use the WiFi, which for obvious reasons was patchy in the "hills". The meals in the parlour car were good,
although there was less selection and they weren't as big as the meals in the dining car. This is ok though, if sitting for prolonged
periods tempers one's appetite, as it does mine.
Some of the scenery through the Cascades, with the high snow covered mountains, and deep, large lakes is magic. More of the same on
the "Empire Builder" I'm told, which I catch tonight.
At one stage in California, we had a couple of private cars attached to the train. A dome car and I think a dining car, all silver, with possibly
California Zephyr (maybe Silver Zephyr) on the side. I'm not sure because I thought one thing and then doubted myself, a common habit of
mine.
